FRANCINE: My mother stole again from me this week. I don't even keep money in my purse anymore. I've been hiding it. But when she wants a drink -- she stole 30 dollars. I know it may not seem like a lot of money to some of you, but it's a lot to me. And I want it back.

MODERATOR: Something you want to say? John, you've been coming here for a month now...

LOCKE: I just don't think 30 dollars is worth getting angry about.

MODERATOR: Well, Francine feels like 30 dollars...

LOCKE: Francine feels a little too much, if you ask me. You all do. I mean, seriously -- so-and-so never called me back -- my mother stole 30 dollars from me. I never even knew who my parents were. A couple of years ago my birth mother found me, and uh, she told me I was special. And through her I met my real father. Great news, right? Well, he pretended to love me just long enough to steal my kidney because he had to have a transplant. And then he dropped me back in the world like a piece of trash -- just like he did on the day that I was born. You want your damned 30 dollars back? I want my kidney back!

DESMOND: It was 3 years ago. I was on a solo race around the world, and my boat crashed into the reef, and then Kelvin came.

LOCKE: Kelvin?

DESMOND: Kelvin -- he comes running out of the jungle -- hurry, hurry, come with me. He brings me down here. The first thing he does -- because there's beeping already -- he types in the code, he pushes the button, and it stops. What was all that about, I say. Just saving the world, he says.

JACK: Saving the world?

DESMOND: His words, not mine. So I started pushing the button, too. And we saved the world together for awhile, and that was lovely. Then Kelvin died, and now here I am all alone. The end.

NARRATION: Welcome, I'm Dr. Marvin Candle, and this is the orientation film for Station 3 of the Dharma Initiative. In a moment you'll be given a simple set of instructions for how you and your partner will fulfill the responsibilities associated with the station. But first, a little history.

The Dharma Initiative was created in 1970, and it is the brainchild of Gerald and Karen DeGroot -- two doctoral candidates at the University of Michigan. Following in the footsteps of visionaries such as B.F. Skinner - imagined a large scale communal research compound where scientists and free thinkers from around the globe could pursue research in meteorology, psychology, parapsychology, zoology, electromagnetism, and utopian social - Danish industrialist and munitions magnate Alvar Hanso whose financial backing made their dream of a multi-purpose social science research facility a reality.

You and your partner are currently located in Station 3, or the Swan, and will be for the next 540 days. Station 3 was originally constructed as a laboratory where scientists could work to understand the unique electromagnetic fluctuations emanating from this sector of the island.

Not long after the experiments began, however, there was an incident. And since that time the following protocol has been observed: every 108 minutes the button must be pushed. From the moment the alarm sounds you will have 4 minutes to enter the code into the microcomputer processor - induction into the program. When the alarm sounds, either you or your partner must input the code. It is highly recommended that you and your partner take alternating shifts. In this manner you will stay as fresh and alert - utmost importance that when the alarm sounds the code be entered correctly, and in a timely fashion. Do not attempt to use the computer - for anything -. Congratulations, until your replacements arrive, the future of the project is in your hands. On behalf of the DeGroots, Alvar Hanso and all of us at the Dharma Initiative, thank you. Namaste. And good luck.

JACK: Stop.

DESMOND: Oh, right. The code, yeah?

JACK: What?

DESMOND: Listen carefully. If by some miracle you manage to get the computer working again you've got to enter the code: 4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42, hit execute. Again: 4, 8, 15...

JACK: Shut up!

DESMOND: Sorry?

JACK: Nothing is going to happen. Some man takes you down there, shows you a movie, and you push a button on, on faith alone? Nothing is going to happen!

DESMOND: In about 15 minutes you're either going to be very right, or very wrong, brother. You want to shoot me? Shoot me. but I'm not...

JACK: Why are you running? You don't even know what you're running from?

DESMOND: I remember you -- running -- I know you -- I met you -- Los Angeles. I was training, yeah? You twisted your ankle...

JACK: Stop.

DESMOND: You're a doctor, right? There was this girl -- you were worried -- you said, you said you failed her. That was you.

JACK: It doesn't matter.

DESMOND: Was she okay, the girl?

JACK: It doesn't matter.

DESMOND: What happened to her?

JACK: It doesn't matter.

DESMOND: How can you say it doesn't matter?

JACK: I married her!

DESMOND: Right, and you're not married to her anymore, then?

JACK: No. It's not real. Look, you want to push the button, you do it yourself.

LOCKE: If it's not real, then what are you doing here, Jack? Why did you come back? Why do you find it so hard to believe?